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BCP F\town West branch committee rejects BMD constituency swap

Tempers are flying high within opposition Botswana Congress Party in Francistown West constituency after the party executive took a decision to swap the constituency with BMD. Under the agreement, BCP will get Maun West while BMD will get Francistown West constituency in an exchange. The decision to exchange the two constituencies between the coalition partners has now caused uproar within the BCP.

Sources within the coalition, Umbrella for Democratic Change told this publication that BMD intends to give Francistown West to Botswana People’s Party which has long requested to be given one of the constituencies in Francistown which is its traditional base. Maun West will be given to BCP leader, Dumelang Saleshando who has not had a constituency to contest for in the upcoming general elections next year.

However, the BCP Francistown West branch committee is said to be against the move. Last week the branch called an emergency meeting to discuss the matter. At the meeting, insiders say a resolution was taken to write a letter to the Central Committee to vehemently object to the decision to give away the constituency to the BMD. The branch committee’s bone of contention is that the party executive did not consult party structures before taking the decision. The party operatives in the constituency strongly believe that the BCP central committee is undermining them by making such a critical decision before thoroughly engaging them.

Global Post has been reliably informed that even parliamentary candidates have been irked by the decision to give away the constituency as they had already fulfilled all the requirements in preparation to the primary elections that were scheduled to be held in June this year. Three candidates being party National Organizing Secretary, Vain Mamela, Nthusi Chimbise and Maria Kusasa had already expressed interest to contest the primary elections.

Regional Chairman, Dingalo Ditsheko confirmed that they held a meeting last week. “It is true that we held a meeting at Aerodrome Primary School. I cannot divulge the details of our meeting since we were discussing internal party issues,” Dingalo said. He noted that the constituency committee has assigned the regional committee to object the decision to give the constituency to the BMD. Dingalo added that, “the branch committee is willing to compromise provided they are given valid reasons why the decision was taken to give away the constituency.” He admitted that party operatives in the constituency are unhappy that the decision was taken before they were consulted.